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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 0905.PDF
FLIGHT, 10 July 1953 61 THE WHEELS UNDER THE WINGS . . . Vauxhall Motors, and a six-cylinder Bedford petrol engine is fitted. Police Vehicles: The R.A.F. Police use a variety of vehicles of which representative types will be displayed. Already at Odiham are two of the smartest Land Rovers which we have seen in service. They carry as much chromium-plate (including that on the bumpers) as a private car, and as one would expect, are kept in first-class condition. In addition, two brand-new Triumph T.R.W. 500 c.c. side-valve twins will be shown. Trainees learn on various types of motor-bike, particularly Nortons and Ariels. The motor-bikes are used mainly for convoy duties. For other transportation duties the police use 15 cwt Bedfords, Hillman cars and—mainly overseas—Vanguard estate wagons. Police dogs are carried in three-ton trucks. The R.A.F. Regiment: The Home Command display gives prominence to the R.A.F. and R.Aux.A.F. Regiment. Detach ments of No. 15 and 16 Light Anti-Aircraft Squadrons will be present, each with two 40 mm Bofors guns and their vehicles, and with two Land Rovers and two motor-cycles. Normally, the smallest unit of a squadron would have three guns, but at Odiham there are representative detachments. In addition, these squadrons have four Thornycroft three-tonners serving as gun- towing vehicles. When moving, the guns are normally clamped and the gunners ride in the towing vehicles, but this is not essential and the gunners may be towed while occupying their seats with the guns in readiness to defend the convoy. The Land Rovers are normally allocated to squadron and flight commanders as recce vehicles, the strength being three per squadron. Under the wing of Technical Training Command the Regiment have a Rifle Flight with arms and equipment, and two Humber light-recce vehicles with their crews. Their mortar detachments are each equipped with 15 cwt transports—both Bedfords and Fordsons being used—and the Rifle Flight also employs Thorny croft three-tonners. A new one-ton Austin vehicle is expected soon, we learn. Mobile Recruiting Office: Recruiting vans will be among the more familiar vehicles to the general public, and they have been used for many months past. They carry an officer, a warrant officer and a corporal driver, and move from town to town giving information and talks on life in the R.A.F. and showing films (with the aid of a 16 mm projector) about the Air Force and its equipment. Naturally, they are prepared to give the fullest information on conditions of service and similar subjects. At exhibitions and displays a mobile recruiting vehicle may be accompanied by a mobile exhibition trailer of the sort to be shown at Odiham. The sides of the trailer fold down to form part of the exhibition; a sectioned Derwent turbojet forms the centre piece, and mounted at the four corners are scale models of modern military aircraft. The recruiting office is mounted on an Austin three-ton six-wheeler which tows a small two-wheel petrol- electric generator trailer. Careers Advice Van: This vehicle supplements the work of the previously mentioned ones, but on the other hand has a very different job. Its purpose is to visit R.A.F. stations and to give advice to men and women already serving regarding their careers in the Service. Subjects which may be discussed are chances of promotion in the various trades, extension of periods of service, personal records, and so on. Type 21 Radar Convoy: This important and impressive unit comprises basically seven vehicles and its duty is to co-operate with fighter squadrons in the capacity of mobile G.C.I, unit. In addition to these seven vehicles, two more would normally be required to provide two-way V.H.F. communications between unit and aircraft. Two vehicles carry aerials: one a Type 14 azimuth scanning head; the other the Type 13 of nodding type for the height scale. These are each self-contained for trans mission and reception, and they feed the information they obtain to the operations vehicle which contains plotting tables, control positions and, of course, the cathode-ray tube displays. Supporting these vehicles are three mobile power units: two for use at any one time, and one in reserve. The final vehicle is a mobile work shop equipped with benches, small tools, power supplies, and so on. Inconveniently for those who must maintain them, the vehicles in the Type 21 convoy are of several types. The power vehicles are four-wheel Thornycroft three-tonners; the workshop is carried on a six-wheel Fordson three-tonner; the ops. vehicles are A.E.C. Matador four-wheelers; the aerial heads are carried on American Mack chassis (the all-up weight of these last- named vehicles, is in the region of 15 tons each) while the V.H.F. trucks, winch may also tow trailers, are Austin three-tonners. Medical Vehicles—Mass Mobile X-Ray Unit: One of the most interesting displays will be that of the R.A.F. Medical Services, among which is the R.A.F. Mass Mobile X-Ray Unit comprising three vehicles: an X-Ray van, dark-room and office, and the medical officer's consulting room, together with his senior N.C.O.'s office. The X-Ray vehicle is basically a Queen Mary with Crossley 4 by 4 Donkey prime mover. The Service name of the unit at Odiham is No. 2 C.R.S.S., which stands for Chest Radiography Sub Section. It is one of two, and the other is now on the road in Scotland. The staff normally comprises a squadron-leader radiologist, one senior N.C.O. medical admin., one radiographer, one W.R.A.F. photographer, one airman photographer, one W.R.A.F. typist, one W.R.A.F. clerk org., and two admin, orderlies. With this staff of nine, 500 photographs can be taken in a day, including retakes where needed. Thus, only a few days would be needed at any one station, and the results can be known in a matter of hours. The Odiham unit, which used to be No. 1, has been in action since 1942. After the Royal Review it is going on a tour of stations in the Midlands and West Country. Mobile Decompression Chamber: Another interesting medical unit is concerned with the mobile decompression chamber. It is the only one of its kind in the R.A.F., and it is borne on an 11-ton A.E.C. diesel vehicle which also carries a diesel electric generator set to supply power for the vacuum pumps for the chamber. The chamber itself is carried on a Templewood eight-ton trailer which is 22ft long and 9ft 2in high. The purpose of the unit is to test aircrews and to give them prior experience of high-altitude flights and the effects of oxygen lack. The chamber seats six, and aircrews are "taken" to 37,000ft for one hour for tests of annoxia and bends. The operator sits in a cabin in front of the chamber and views the "victims" through portholes. Normal intercom is employed and oxyg;n is supplied from 750-litre cylinders, stored in banks of twelve on each side of the chamber, via standard aircrew masks. This unit is normally based at Halton, but recently has co-operated with the School of Aviation Medicine at Farnborough and it is also being used for training operators of other static equipment. Mobile Laboratory: The duty of this vehicle is to look after station epidemics, and similar vehicles are already in use in the Middle East. It is equipped as required to attack the particular epidemic to which it is being despatched. The model for the Review is assumed to be ready for a bacteriological outbreak of, say, typhoid, but at any time it can also look after such things as blood transfusions. The unit is based at Halton and is a sub section of the Institute of Pathological and Tropical Medicine, and its principal work is found abroad. The crew usually com prises one laboratory officer, a senior N.C.O. and two lab. tech nicians (the name used to be laboratory assistants). Mobile Dental Surgery: It is more convenient and economical to send the dental officer and his surgery to the small outlying units, particularly overseas units, than it is to send the men and women to the surgery. A mobile dental surgery and laboratory has therefore been designed which is capable of pushing-out to units in the desert or operating in the field immediately behind the front line. All normal dentistry can be undertaken and, should it be necessary, the vehicle can provide its own emergency lighting and has a built-in water-tank of 60-gall capacity. Nor mally, however, water, power and a telephone line would be provided from outside. In the field the electric source would be a trailer-mounted 2.5 kW generator, and a mobile tanker would provide the water. The crew comprises the dental officer and corporal assistant, and the driver of the vehicle. The mobile surgery contains such equipment as an electric water-heater and sterilizer, fountain spittoon, pump-up dental chair, as well as the familiar instruments of torture driven by an electric dental engine. At one end there is a small work-bench. For cold climates wall-heaters are built in, and the vehicle is double-walled and carries fly-screens and fans for air circulation for tropical countries. The dental surgery is self-propelled, being mounted on a Fordson three-tonner. The body was built by Elliotts, Ltd., of Reading. The vehicle was modified to its present standard last year by Spurlings, Ltd., of Hendon, and it now incorporates most of the recent ideas for the development of a new series of mobile dental surgeries. Parachute Vehicles: That there are mobile parachute sections may come as a surprise to some people. Two 35-ft vehicles are employed, positioned end to end. A third vehicle is required to transport drying and heating plant and to blow hpt air into the first two vehicles. Instead of hanging them, parachutes are wrapped round rails. Royal Observer Corps: Although there will be more aircraft to observe and identify in the Odiham area on July 15th than ever before, it will not be easy for the Observer Corps to demon strate spotting and plotting with their aid. However, some 20 members of the Corps will be present with a pre-fabricated concrete observation post.
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